1. Technical Field
Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a quantum interference device, an atomic oscillator, an electronic apparatus, and a vehicle.
2. Related Art
As an oscillator having an accurate oscillation characteristic for a long period of time, there has been known an atomic oscillator, which oscillates based on the energy transition of an atom of alkali metal such as rubidium or cesium (see, e.g., Japanese Patent No. 4,972,550). Further, the atomic oscillator using the quantum interference effect can be miniaturized more easily than the atomic oscillator using the double resonance phenomenon, and is therefore expected to be mounted on a variety of types of apparatuses in recent years.
For example, the atomic oscillator described in Document 1 is provided with a chip-scale device having a light source, a photodetector device, and a steam cell (an atom cell) integrated with each other, and a suspension device for suspending the chip-scale device. By integrating the light source, the photodetector device, and the steam cell with each other, it is possible to achieve the miniaturization of the atomic oscillator.
In the atomic oscillator, in order to obtain a good oscillation characteristic, in general, a certain distance becomes necessary between the light source and the atom cell. In the atomic oscillator described in Japanese Patent No. 4,972,550, the light source, the photodetector device, and the steam cell are arranged in the height direction. Therefore, in the atomic clock system of Japanese Patent No. 4,972,550, there is a problem that it is difficult to achieve height reduction.